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Maren's list of environmental, cultural, and social justice events in and around Pittsburgh.

Jun 21: Water Connects Us All!

Celebrate the Summer Solstice with local faith communities for World Peace and Prayer Day.

Folks will meet at 4:00 p.m. at the Allegheny Landing Park on the North Shore next to the Andy Warhol Bridge.

Musical instruments and talents are welcome to share with the community. The gathered throng will then walk over the Allegheny River to offer our collective prayers and intentions for our rivers and sacred waters. The group will gather, enter and exit the bridge from the North Shore at Allegheny Landing park at Sandusky Street.

Following the prayers and intentions on the bridge, the group will return to the Allegheny Landing for more song and prayer.

The Pittsburgh gathering will stand in solidarity with the 24th annual World Peace and Prayer Day in Cincinnati, a multi-cultural honoring of sacred sites envisioned by the spiritual leader of the Lakota Sioux, Chief Arvol Looking Horse.

World Peace and Prayer Day promotes the unity and security that comes from mutual concern, care and respect. This will be a time to gather, to share what we know, to listen to each other’s stories and to stand and pray together in right relationship with one another—and with our Mother Earth.

Who is Maren?

Maren Cooke is a planetary scientist by training, but now concentrates on environmental education and activism on climate, air quality, land use, energy, and sustainability. She serves on the board of GASP, and works closely with other organizations including 350 Pgh, CCL, Climate Reality Leadership Corps, Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic, Sierra Club, Grow Pgh, Transition Pgh, the Green Education Movement, CMU’s Institute for Green Science, and the City of Pittsburgh. She volunteers as an Urban Ecosteward, a Tree Tender, and a Master Gardener, and co-founded a nature education program and a school garden at a local K-8. She has helped create science curricula and train teachers, and has taught physics, astronomy, environmental science, and permaculture to people of all ages. She operates an urban microfarm, supplying organic produce to a local restaurant and a food pantry and garden plants to the surrounding community, and has been rebuilding her family’s home as a demonstration site for green building and green living. Maren also organizes and hosts Sustainability Salons, a monthly environmental education forum and community gathering now eight years running.